A team strategy: aligning the planets
Published by Halifax Consulting – 12 October 2023
Labour shortages are forcing many organizations to do more with less… until they can find the resources they need to complete their teams. In sales, this situation can become critical. This is why perfect sales team productivity is essential. To achieve this, it’s essential to develop a team strategy based on alignment between business vision and sales objectives.
If everyone pursues their own vision and works alone in their own corner, they won’t benefit from the support and efficiency of the mobilized team. In other words, it’s better to row in the same direction than to paddle alone.
Sharing the same business vision is essential, but so are sharing the objectives to be achieved and the strategies for getting there. All this has to be understood by everyone. This is the duty of the sales manager. A rigorous, analytical approach to successes and failures, priority targets, winning prospecting methods… shared by the whole team, and directly linked to the company’s values and culture, will be its success, its distinctive signature.
Motivate your troops!
But focusing energies on priority targets and activities is not enough. At all times, but even more so in a context of manpower scarcity, the sales manager must focus on retaining his workforce, essentially by motivating them on a daily basis. It’s a well-known fact that a happy employee makes for a successful company.
This is the sales manager’s second duty. This position requires leadership to motivate the troops, point them in the right direction (objectives) and give them the support they need to flourish in the company.
Every team member needs to be taken care of, both professionally and personally. The right manager will first and foremost be able to identify the right players to join his team, but he will also be able to adapt to different profiles in order to optimize their respective performances. The Atman Talent Identification Test, which probes individual personalities and ‘profiles’ the best sales people in your company, is a great help in this task.
The continuous improvement of your team, collectively and individually, also remains at the heart of your actions. It’s all about leading by example: your own progress in your job will inevitably involve regular training/updates, keeping a close eye on trends and best practices, and transferring knowledge to your team. On-site assessment of each individual’s skills is therefore essential, so that we can continue to measure motivation, which is an integral part of the exercise.
At Halifax, we’ve developed an online coaching solution to help you measure over 200 sales skills and train your teams: it’s the Halifax Sales Bootcamp.
To find out how to manage your teams, discover our sales management training course and how to get started with the Halifax Sales Bootcamp!
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